Beijing Opens Pilot Commercialization of Autonomous Driving
Our reporter Cao Zheng and Sun Qiru
Place an order on your mobile phone, and the self-driving passenger car will serve you.
On the 25th, Beijing officially opened the country's first pilot for commercialization of autonomous driving travel services, taking the lead in investing no more than 100 autonomous vehicles in the 60 square kilometers of the Economic and Technological Development Zone to carry out commercial services.
The relevant person in charge of the Municipal Self-driving Office introduced that under the premise of ensuring the principle of fair competition in the market, enterprises can adopt a market-based pricing mechanism; the experience charging service can only be opened on the premise of clearing the principle of charging and payment methods to passengers.
This marks a new stage in the domestic autonomous driving field from testing and demonstration to commercial pilot exploration.
How to determine the price?
Market-based pricing for autonomous driving
More than a year ago, residents of Beijing Economic Development Zone and many other places began to adopt free self-driving travel services for free.
Nowadays, in the commercialization pilot exploration, enterprises can set prices in the market.
On the 25th, Baidu and Xiaoma Zhixing became the first batch of companies approved to carry out commercial pilot services for autonomous driving.
At this stage, the two companies will invest no more than 100 autonomous vehicles to provide services in the 60 square kilometers of the Economic Development Zone.
“As of now, Beijing’s accumulated safety test mileage for autonomous driving is close to 3 million kilometers, and the management policy innovation has achieved good results, and the conditions for commercialization pilots are already in place. Commercialization pilots are the final link in the implementation of autonomous driving application scenarios, and thus form a closed industrial loop." The relevant person in charge of the self-driving office explained.
Will self-driving travel services have an impact on the traditional taxi and online car-hailing markets?
"Compared with about 3000 traditional travel service vehicles in the existing economic development zone, the proportion of commercial pilot vehicles is very low and will not have a significant impact on the existing travel service system." The relevant person in charge said.
In terms of pricing, the commercialization pilot will also follow the principle of fair market competition, adopt a market-based adjustment pricing mechanism, and focus on the new format of autonomous driving and the nature of the new technological service experience provided, based on the reference to the traditional pricing mechanism of travel services. The strategy is different from the existing traditional travel service vehicles, and the exploration of the pricing mechanism under the new business model will not affect the existing market.
How to ensure safety?
Serious violations will cancel the pilot service qualification
Safety and control is the most important basic principle for carrying out commercialization pilot activities.
According to the management policy, companies must submit vehicle safety technical inspection certificates to the municipal self-driving office on a regular basis every year to ensure that the vehicles are in good technical condition and reliable safety performance; check the vehicle performance and equipment (including software and hardware) conditions before leaving the vehicle every day.
How to guarantee the quality of the passenger's payment experience?
According to reports, relevant companies will establish and improve the service evaluation system and passenger complaint handling system, and regularly submit to the municipal self-driving office periodic summary reports including pilot operation overview, service quality, passenger evaluation complaint handling, traffic violations and accidents; The self-driving office will also supervise the daily operating conditions of the enterprise by authorizing third-party institutions with supervisory functions.
Regarding violations, the Municipal Self-Driving Office will take measures such as interviews, suspension of pilot operations of some vehicles, suspension of pilot operations of all vehicles, and cancellation of commercial pilot service qualifications.
If the circumstance is serious, it will also feed back clues about violations of laws and regulations to the competent authority.
During the pilot commercialization of autonomous vehicles, who should be held responsible for traffic accidents or traffic violations?
The commercial pilot application subject and the safety officer on the vehicle will jointly be the subject of responsibility; if a traffic accident caused by the pilot vehicle constitutes a criminal offence, the safety officer and the person in charge of the application subject shall bear corresponding criminal liabilities in accordance with the current effective laws and regulations.
Measured
Large discounts to facilitate short-distance travel in the region
As the pilot commercialization of autonomous driving travel services took the lead in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, the reporter experienced it on the spot.
Open the "Turnip Run" app on your mobile phone, select a station near you, and wait for about half a minute after placing an order, an autonomous car stopped by the road where the reporter was.
Enter the back seat of the self-driving vehicle, enter the end number of the mobile phone for verification, and the vehicle will start to drive automatically.
Due to the requirements of relevant laws and regulations, a safety officer is still sitting in the main driver's seat.
However, unless there are special circumstances, the security officer usually does not interfere with the vehicle.
In terms of billing, after the reporter's experience of about four kilometers is completed, the price of Carrot Run is about 36 yuan, and the final payment after using a large coupon is about 1.8 yuan.
Another passenger experienced about a 5km trip. The price of Didi Express is about 13 yuan, and the price of a special car is about 33 yuan; the price of Carrot Run is about 40 yuan, and there are large coupons that can be deducted after the deduction. The actual payment amount is only 2 yuan.
Why are the current prices of autonomous driving services so cheap?
Will the situation of large discounts become normal?
In response, Wei Dong, the operator of Carrot Run and the vice president of Baidu’s intelligent driving business group, responded, “In order to encourage more citizens to experience, in the early stage, we will attract everyone to experience the ride by issuing coupons and giving gifts in the car. With the changes in supply and demand and the improvement of people’s acceptance, we will gradually explore the restoration of market-oriented prices."
Will self-driving cars carry passengers on the road will have an impact on traditional travel services?
Wei Dong introduced that autonomous driving travel services such as Carrot Run are mainly complementary to traditional taxis and online car-hailing.
Traditional taxis and online car-hailing can meet a series of long and short-distance travel needs of passengers to airports and stations. However, the commercial operation of autonomous driving travel services is currently limited to Yizhuang to meet the needs of short-distance travel in Yizhuang. It can be used in the morning and evening rush hours. Time, to make up for the shortcomings of short-distance travel service capacity.
related news
Shunyi opens 13 autonomous driving travel service lines
News from our newspaper (Reporter Sun Qiru) Yesterday, Baidu's autonomous driving travel service platform "Carrot Run" was officially opened to the public in Shunyi District, Beijing, becoming the first platform in Shunyi District to provide autonomous driving travel services.
Up to now, "Carrot Run" has been opened to the public in five areas of Beijing, Haidian, Yizhuang, Shijingshan, Tongzhou, and Shunyi.
Shunyi is a new area for the "Turnip Run" manned test service, and all users can use the "Turnip Run" APP for taxi-hailing services.
In the initial stage, 13 operating lines were established to cover core travel scenarios such as residential areas, office areas, hotels, and public service places.
The reporter noticed that since Beijing's current pilot commercialization of self-driving passenger cars only landed in Yizhuang, the self-driving services that citizens can currently experience in Shunyi are manned testing services, not paid commercial services.
At this stage, citizens can experience the "Carrot Run" autonomous driving trip for free on the line of stations that have been opened in Shunyi.
According to the customer service staff of "Carrot Run", most of the open sites in Shunyi are located near Tongshun Road and Mapo Bridge.
In the future, the "Carrot Run" service route will continue to expand to continuously meet the needs of public transportation and complement traditional travel modes, making it the first choice for Shunyi's "technological travel".